Sheila Rae, the Brave

A mouse both boastful and fearless, Sheila Rae decides to go home from school by taking a new route. She walks backwards with her eyes closed, growls at dogs and cats, climbs trees, turns new corners and crosses different streetsand ends up in the middle of unfamiliar territory. Lost and sad, she thinks of home, her parents and her timid sister Louise. As soon as she cries for help, who should appear but Louise, who swings down from a tree branch and saves Sheila Rae from harm. She had followed her older sister, and she knows the way back. Everything that happens here is completely credible, hence appealing to kids' intuitionsmost get carried away sometimes and learn their limitations the hard way. Henkes's illustrations show rainbow-colored forests, mellow graffiti-scrawled fences and one very confident character, Sheila Rae. But little Louise steals the show. Ages 5-8. (August)

PreS-Gr 2 Fearless mouse Sheila Rae is not afraid of anything, and she flaunts her confidence by confronting real and imagined terrors daily (her imagined ones are particularly creative and funny). Finally Sheila Rae decides on a new challenge: she will go home from school a new way. When she gets hopelessly lost, her courage falters, but scaredy-cat little sister Louise has been surreptitiously following Sheila Rae, and proves her own bravery by leading her sister safely home. Louise mimics her sister's undaunted style all the way home ("She growled at stray dogs, and bared her teeth at stray cats"), thus providing a strong language pattern for new readers. Bouncy watercolors in spring-like colors with some pen-and-ink detailing highlight Sheila Rae's bravado in an engaging and amusing way, and Henkes provides Sheila Rae, Louise, and their school friends with highly expressive faces. Children will respond to both the humor of the story and the illustrations and to the challenge of facing fears head-on. Librarians can share this one with small groups or recommend it for patrons without fear, for children will love it. David Gale, "School Library Journal"